Cold Steel's new owners, (GSM), is mind boggling big...

PocketKnifeJimmy

PocketKnifeJimmy

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Wow!... GSM Sports is huge!
I know it's been said many times before, but today I did a search engine lookup for GSM Sports... Wow!... Just WOW!
I counted 42 brands of product lines. I'm not sure if some are overlapping brands, (where one company brand is branched into more than one line of products), but in any case... Sheesh, there is so much stuff under their umbrella!
Their list of brands do seem mostly tailored to the outdoorsman, (mostly hunting & shooting sports). If GSM Sports would have purchased the 'Esee' knife company, it would have been a much better fit to the existing brands they already had... But, Cold Steel was a company that, from it's very start, used marketing and sold items that were controversial. CS never stopped doing that under Lynn Thompson' ownership.
What I see when I look at GSM's list of acquired brands/companies, is that Cold Steel sticks out as the red headed stepchild, (at least when one looks at Cold Steel's previous tendency to make, market, and offer items that were less than politically correct).
Hmm, I just can't see how GSM will continue in the long run to maintain Cold Steel's public image.
For Cold Steel to better fit into that list of GSM brands, I can only see them neutering Cold Steel's masculinity. I just can't see them allowing that red headed stepchild to draw unwanted attention to them.
It's just more speculation on my part, but after looking more closely at GSM's other brands, Cold Steel's 2021 product offerings look even more likely as the last true representation of what most of us have considered Cold Steel to be.

For now, GSM has likely been making great sales on the 2021 CS product line. There are surely tons of folks out there getting in on what they know may be the last of Cold Steel's legacy type items, they too anticipating drastic changes that may be implemented in 2022 and beyond.
 
Im going to, on a broad spectrum, disagree. Many cold steel folding knives are well suited for the outdoors. They make for great utility knives, hunting knives, work knives or general outdoors knives. That’s were the value is for GSM.

Gsm seems to be handling the brand quite well up to this point. Even releasing a few much requested models. They’re playing to cold steel fans while maintaining models that appeal to the average knife user.
 
115Italian said:
Im going to, on a broad spectrum, disagree. Many cold steel folding knives are well suited for the outdoors. They make for great utility knives, hunting knives, work knives or general outdoors knives. That’s were the value is for GSM.

Gsm seems to be handling the brand quite well up to this point. Even releasing a few much requested models. They’re playing to cold steel fans while maintaining models that appeal to the average knife user.
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I agree with 115Italian.
One example of listening to traditional Cold Steel customers was reissuing the Holdout Folders in the 3" and 6" blades. Those are useful knives. There may be other examplesI m not aware of.
I m willing to see how GSM does with the company.
 
I had not realized that they put out new offerings above & beyond the 2021 catalog.
The Cold Steel sale to GSM was done late during the 2020 year, so the 2021 catalog, (and products within it), were almost certainly put in motion by Lynn Thompson. So, the GSM company pretty much inherited that 2021 catalog and it's offered products. As for new products they may have offered for the 2021 year that were not cataloged for 2021, that indeed should be seen as being a good thing 👍
I still doubt they will come out with new "over the top" controversial CS goods, my more likely believing they'll continue with their more benign knives/tools, and add in more of such, and phase out the things that may tend to raise the eyebrows of the politically correct folks.
We shall see, thanks for your input/opinion, guys! 👍😊👍
 
115Italian said:
Im going to, on a broad spectrum, disagree. Many cold steel folding knives are well suited for the outdoors. They make for great utility knives, hunting knives, work knives or general outdoors knives. That’s were the value is for GSM.

Gsm seems to be handling the brand quite well up to this point. Even releasing a few much requested models. They’re playing to cold steel fans while maintaining models that appeal to the average knife user.
Click to expand...

As my fellow Italian said, many of Cold Steel's folders make amazing outdoor knives. A few little tweaks here and there and they would be perfect.
 
Billy The Hungry said:
As my fellow Italian said, many of Cold Steel's folders make amazing outdoor knives. A few little tweaks here and there and they would be perfect.
PocketKnifeJimmy said:
Wow!... GSM Sports is huge!
I know it's been said many times before, but today I did a search engine lookup for GSM Sports... Wow!... Just WOW!
I counted 42 brands of product lines. I'm not sure if some are overlapping brands, (where one company brand is branched into more than one line of products), but in any case... Sheesh, there is so much stuff under their umbrella!
Their list of brands do seem mostly tailored to the outdoorsman, (mostly hunting & shooting sports). If GSM Sports would have purchased the 'Esee' knife company, it would have been a much better fit to the existing brands they already had... But, Cold Steel was a company that, from it's very start, used marketing and sold items that were controversial. CS never stopped doing that under Lynn Thompson' ownership.
What I see when I look at GSM's list of acquired brands/companies, is that Cold Steel sticks out as the red headed stepchild, (at least when one looks at Cold Steel's previous tendency to make, market, and offer items that were less than politically correct).
Hmm, I just can't see how GSM will continue in the long run to maintain Cold Steel's public image.
For Cold Steel to better fit into that list of GSM brands, I can only see them neutering Cold Steel's masculinity. I just can't see them allowing that red headed stepchild to draw unwanted attention to them.
It's just more speculation on my part, but after looking more closely at GSM's other brands, Cold Steel's 2021 product offerings look even more likely as the last true representation of what most of us have considered Cold Steel to be.

For now, GSM has likely been making great sales on the 2021 CS product line. There are surely tons of folks out there getting in on what they know may be the last of Cold Steel's legacy type items, they too anticipating drastic changes that may be implemented in 2022 and beyond.
Click to expand...
I remember when Cold Steel started up and yes some of their tactical knives were controversial, mainly because of the way they marketed them. For the most part however, what they really started out doing was providing high performance knives at very reasonable cost. The Pendleton Hunter, the Master Hunter, the SRK, the Voyager lock backs, the old Hudson Bay and Red River series of knives, the machetes, axes and tomahawks were all excellent outdoor knives and tools. If they can maintain their tradition of providing low cost high value products, there's definitely a place for them.
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its gonna get much bigger with gridiron capital kinda money behind them.
 
Just to clarify my opinion, guys... I am not speaking of the types of CS knives you guys are discussing.
The types of products that I could see GSM considering for the chopping block, are the much more controversial types that CS has been very well known for. Controversy brings attention, and although most companies like attention, most choose to shy away from what may be seen as negative attention, (too politically incorrect stuff).

Examples of what kinds of things I am talking about here, (the more likely)...

*Throwing stars

*Bats/Clubs intended for self defense.

*Any of the remaining Chaos series.

*Sword Canes

*Push Daggers

And maybe these, (but probably less likely)...

*Cable tanged fighting Bowies, (Natchez & Laredo)

*OSS (double edged knife)

*Tai Pan (double edged dagger)

*Wasp (double edged dagger)

*Any of the longer blade Tanto knives, (not the more standard Recon Tanto blade length types).

*XL Espada

All the above are just examples of what I am aiming at when I say Cold Steel Controversial "tools".

I also wonder if they'll discontinue their India manufactured items... And entirely for different reasons than the above types of products listed.
I can imagine that the India made stuff, (much of which is likely made by Windlass Steelcrafts), brings them a lot of headaches. The batches of each product they receive from there, probably runs the gamut in their final execution, and a lot of companies simply don't want to mess with the extra hassles that brings. So, I could see them closing out contracts with the India manufacturers, and either having them made elsewhere, or dropping those items altogether.

For similar reasons I could see that happening with the South African made products.

If the India & South African items get shifted elsewhere, I doubt that shift would be to Taiwan... More likely China.
 
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PocketKnifeJimmy said:
Just to clarify my opinion, guys... I am not speaking of the types of CS knives you guys are discussing.
The types of products that I could see GSM considering for the chopping block, are the much more controversial types that CS has been very well known for. Controversy brings attention, and although most companies like attention, most choose to shy away from what may be seen as negative attention, (too politically incorrect stuff).

Examples of what kinds of things I am talking about here, (the more likely)...

*Throwing stars

*Bats/Clubs intended for self defense.

*Any of the remaining Chaos series.

*Sword Canes

*Push Daggers

And maybe these, (but probably less likely)...

*Cable tanged fighting Bowies, (Natchez & Laredo)

*OSS (double edged knife)

*Tai Pan (double edged dagger)

*Wasp (double edged dagger)

*Any of the longer blade Tanto knives, (not the more standard Recon Tanto blade length types).

*XL Espada

All the above are just examples of what I am aiming at when I say Cold Steel Controversial "tools".

I also wonder if they'll discontinue their India manufactured items... And entirely for different reasons than the above types of products listed.
I can imagine that the India made stuff, (much of which is likely made by Windlass Steelcrafts), brings them a lot of headaches. The batches of each product they receive from there, probably runs the gamut in their final execution, and a lot of companies simply don't want to mess with the extra hassles that brings. So, I could see them closing out contracts with the India manufacturers, and either having them made elsewhere, or dropping those items altogether.

For similar reasons I could see that happening with the South African made products.

If the India & South African items get shifted elsewhere, I doubt that shift would be to Taiwan... More likely China.
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You are more than likely correct on all counts.
 
May the stalwarts like (in no particular order) the Trail Master, Recon Scout, SRK, Outdoorsman, Master Hunter, Drop Forged Hunter and Survivalist, AD-10, Ultimate Hunter, Pendletons and other outdoors knives that Cold Steel has produced live on for more - in more variety of steels and price points.
 
No doubt, it's all just speculation on my part. Of course I base this speculation on the patterns of so many companies that I've seen over the years get gobbled up by big investment firms.
I've based my most recent Cold Steel purchases on this speculation. I figure I'd get certain CS items that I've procrastinated about buying, or have been interested in, but was still on the fence about, to make sure I don't miss the boat on them. It's actually a win-win situation for both GSM and myself. If they do keep rolling these items out their doors, and my concerns prove to be unfounded, then it means my purchases funneled money into the economy, has helped the Cold Steel branch of GSM to continue well, and has me owning a few more cool goodies 👍
Of course if my speculation turns out pretty close to reality, then it means I have wound up not missing the boat on getting CS items that may no longer be offered in the near future 👍
I also believe that there are quite a few items that are in the 2021 catalog that have not been brought to market as of yet. Will they eventually be offered?... Or, could they become vaperware?... One never knows.
You see, the pandemic has caused disruptions in the marketplace that may cause GSM's Cold Steel into making decisions on cutting this or that, and not even based on the items being "controversial", but maybe on the items simply hitting a snag on material shortages, labor force shortages, way too high price increases, or some other snafu.
Now, as a collector of all sorts of "do-dads", I see this possibility being a chance to maybe get very limited made CS items. How, you may ask?... Well, if the pandemic situation causes some of these 2021 items to be released in only small numbers, and then GSM decides to just discontinue them because the snafu' are causing too many hassles, then these items are going to be cool rare items for those that managed to get them.

Again, all just speculation on my part... But, without CS sending someone out to discuss things with us on these boards and other media platforms, it can be fun to speculate... It giving me something to later look back on and see how wrong, (or right), I actually was in my guessing 👍😊👍
 
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I think customer buying habits will influence what GSM continues to market through Cold Steel. If people continue to buy the Cold Steel products we love, I expect to see them available as long as that lasts. If they don't, then I would expect GSM to turn toward the direction of competitor's products that are selling well.
 
rhino said:
I think customer buying habits will influence what GSM continues to market through Cold Steel. If people continue to buy the Cold Steel products we love, I expect to see them available as long as that lasts. If they don't, then I would expect GSM to turn toward the direction of competitor's products that are selling well.
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That’s pretty much it.
 
PocketKnifeJimmy said:
I just can't see how GSM will continue in the long run to maintain Cold Steel's public image.
For Cold Steel to better fit into that list of GSM brands, I can only see them neutering Cold Steel's masculinity. I just can't see them allowing that red headed stepchild to draw unwanted attention to them.
It's just more speculation on my part, but after looking more closely at GSM's other brands, Cold Steel's 2021 product offerings look even more likely as the last true representation of what most of us have considered Cold Steel to be.
Click to expand...
I agree with you. Can't see CS continuing to make anything huge or weird. Who buys stuff like huge bowie knives, medieval maces, spears, Viking axes? Maybe you or me and the rest of the CS fans here. Normal people? Not a chance. So I expect CS to take a much more straightforward outdoorsy path, for generic campers and hikers.
 
deadzonepatrol said:
I agree with you. Can't see CS continuing to make anything huge or weird. Who buys stuff like huge bowie knives, medieval maces, spears, Viking axes? Maybe you or me and the rest of the CS fans here. Normal people? Not a chance. So I expect CS to take a much more straightforward outdoorsy path, for generic campers and hikers.
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That's exactly how I see it, Sir.
 
deadzonepatrol said:
I agree with you. Can't see CS continuing to make anything huge or weird. Who buys stuff like huge bowie knives, medieval maces, spears, Viking axes? Maybe you or me and the rest of the CS fans here. Normal people? Not a chance. So I expect CS to take a much more straightforward outdoorsy path, for generic campers and hikers.
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I just hope they maintain good heat treat and quality control.
 
Blade Show 2021 will be held during June 4th - 6th... That's when I'm hoping that GSM's plans for the direction they'll be taking Cold Steel in may start being better explained/shared.
Although Lynn Thompson had mentioned early on that he would still be on board with GSM in some shape or form, he seems to have disappeared from GSM altogether, and we now know for sure that Andrew Demko is no longer with them.
With Andrew, (and possibly Lynn), gone from CS's line-up, it would seem they truly want to take CS in some sort of a different direction, (the brand having relied so heavily on those two men for product ideas).

I'm looking forward to reading about any news that may come out of Blade Show concerning GSM's plans. I also hope that maybe they'll kick start a new strategy to connect directly with the customers themselves. Maybe we can start to see a Representative pop in here on a regular basis to answer questions and keep us up to date with their latest plans.
One can only hope 👍😊👍
 
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